A little robot man living in a mechanical world must save his friends and neighbors from a group of nefarious local thugs. It has a simplistic yet beautiful art style with a lot of attention to detail. Despite being comprised entirely of robots, the game is quite expressive and has a lot of charm and heart. It's decently varied and somewhat challenging, and would likely appeal to seasoned point and clickers or casual gamers. It's now an old classic of the genre.


I would describe Machinarium's art style as a mix of sketchbook outlines with water color details. Most backgrounds are static paintings with a handful of moving components. It also has a surprising amount of character animation, mainly in the form of simple tweens and hand-drawn animatics. There's not a lot to say here, at least not much more than you could see in the videos and promotional material.

It is worth noting there is no spoken dialogue or text of any kind. Everything is conveyed using pantomime, sound bytes, and visual cues. Characters make occasional grunts of acknowledgement or discontent, but that's about it.


Plot-related details are illustrated using a large thought bubble that appears during significant moments. Usually, these clouds detail something that happened in the past, mainly centered around the bad guys and their continued harassment of the local populace. Despite being very rudimentary, they are extremely effective at conveying the plot.

In fact, you'll likely miss this detail, but if you leave the game idle for long enough, the protagonist will summon little nostalgic memories of him and his girlfriend. There are several of these, which are missable if you didn't know to stop and wait. These little wholesome animatics are adorable, and it's quite unfortunate that they are so easy to overlook.


Which brings us to the story. Josef, the protagonist, begins his journey after being dumped into a landfill. From there, he picks himself back up and puzzles his way back into his home city, while also going toe to toe with the local crime syndicate. You piece the story together using Josef's recollection of what happened before he was ousted.

You meet a colorful cast of characters, many of which who have had run ins with the aforementioned mafia, and subsequently lost something of value as a result. Josef goes around solving people's woes while also undoing much of the damage done by the bad guys.


For a game that is composed entirely of robots, there is an incredible amount of heart woven into this experience. Josef is quite expressive, and his flashbacks are both charming and moving. Each character's body language and actions convey everything from sadness, worry, joy, and terror.

Some games struggle to inject emotion into their story, even with spoken dialogue, music, and complicated choreography. Here, simple animations and sketchy animatics provide immediate emotional feedback and narrative context while also feeling completely natural in presentation. I suppose less is more in this situation.


As stated before, the game features a wide variety of puzzles. Some are based on board games. A few are homages to classic video games. Others might even require pulling out a pencil and paper and drawing out the logic. Most, however, revolve around gathering items and using them in context sensitive situations.

One helpful feature when puzzling would be Josef's pathological need to throw away any item that no longer has a use. This happens rather often, and it's unlikely that you'll ever have more than three items at any given time as a result. This helps cut down on having too many options when solving an item chain. The moment something loses value, it's gone. It has a funny in universe implication, while also serving a gameplay practicality.


I would say the game is between easy and moderately difficult. Due to the varied nature of the puzzles, everyone will have that one puzzle that they get stuck on. Maybe it'll be the connect 5, or the arcade, or the pipe cutoff puzzle. The last puzzle, in particular, I had to look up, because I'm awful when it comes to music notes and audio cues. This makes it hard to really gauge overall difficulty.

It's worth noting that the game has a hint system and a hint book for you to unlock. These systems can be used to help guide you through the tougher spots. If the game gets too vague, you can always crack open a hint.


Finally, the game is roughly 4-5 hours long. For some, that's great, and for others, that's too short. Personally, I don't really think time is a good moniker for judging the quality of a point and click. Case and point, some of the old school Sierra games used to go on for weeks at a time, to the point they became excruciating to beat.

Here, I think Machinarium is just right in its length. A succinct story that doesn't drag its feet or skimp on content.


At this point, I would call Machinarium a classic point and click. Its minimalistic style combined with its expressive characters makes it a joy to explore. Its variety in puzzles is welcoming, while also being decently challenging. If you consider yourself a seasoned adventurer, then you should really pick this up. It might be good for casual gamers as well.


Steam Curator

[b]A little robot man living in a mechanical world must save his friends and neighbors from a group of nefarious local thugs. It has a simplistic yet beautiful art style with a lot of attention to detail. Despite being comprised entirely of robots, the game is quite expressive and has a lot of charm and heart. It's decently varied and somewhat challenging, and would likely appeal to seasoned point and clickers or casual gamers. It's now an old classic of the genre.[/b] I would describe Machinarium's art style as a mix of sketchbook outlines with water color details. Most backgrounds are static paintings with a handful of moving components. It also has a surprising amount of character animation, mainly in the form of simple tweens and hand-drawn animatics. There's not a lot to say here, at least not much more than you could see in the videos and promotional material. It is worth noting there is no spoken dialogue or text of any kind. Everything is conveyed using pantomime, sound bytes, and visual cues. Characters make occasional grunts of acknowledgement or discontent, but that's about it. Plot-related details are illustrated using a large thought bubble that appears during significant moments. Usually, these clouds detail something that happened in the past, mainly centered around the bad guys and their continued harassment of the local populace. Despite being very rudimentary, they are extremely effective at conveying the plot. In fact, you'll likely miss this detail, but if you leave the game idle for long enough, the protagonist will summon little nostalgic memories of him and his girlfriend. There are several of these, which are missable if you didn't know to stop and wait. These little wholesome animatics are adorable, and it's quite unfortunate that they are so easy to overlook. Which brings us to the story. Josef, the protagonist, begins his journey after being dumped into a landfill. From there, he picks himself back up and puzzles his way back into his home city, while also going toe to toe with the local crime syndicate. You piece the story together using Josef's recollection of what happened before he was ousted. You meet a colorful cast of characters, many of which who have had run ins with the aforementioned mafia, and subsequently lost something of value as a result. Josef goes around solving people's woes while also undoing much of the damage done by the bad guys. For a game that is composed entirely of robots, there is an incredible amount of heart woven into this experience. Josef is quite expressive, and his flashbacks are both charming and moving. Each character's body language and actions convey everything from sadness, worry, joy, and terror. Some games struggle to inject emotion into their story, even with spoken dialogue, music, and complicated choreography. Here, simple animations and sketchy animatics provide immediate emotional feedback and narrative context while also feeling completely natural in presentation. I suppose less is more in this situation. As stated before, the game features a wide variety of puzzles. Some are based on board games. A few are homages to classic video games. Others might even require pulling out a pencil and paper and drawing out the logic. Most, however, revolve around gathering items and using them in context sensitive situations. One helpful feature when puzzling would be Josef's pathological need to throw away any item that no longer has a use. This happens rather often, and it's unlikely that you'll ever have more than three items at any given time as a result. This helps cut down on having too many options when solving an item chain. The moment something loses value, it's gone. It has a funny in universe implication, while also serving a gameplay practicality. I would say the game is between easy and moderately difficult. Due to the varied nature of the puzzles, everyone will have that one puzzle that they get stuck on. Maybe it'll be the connect 5, or the arcade, or the pipe cutoff puzzle. The last puzzle, in particular, I had to look up, because I'm awful when it comes to music notes and audio cues. This makes it hard to really gauge overall difficulty. It's worth noting that the game has a hint system and a hint book for you to unlock. These systems can be used to help guide you through the tougher spots. If the game gets too vague, you can always crack open a hint. Finally, the game is roughly 4-5 hours long. For some, that's great, and for others, that's too short. Personally, I don't really think time is a good moniker for judging the quality of a point and click. Case and point, some of the old school Sierra games used to go on for weeks at a time, to the point they became excruciating to beat. Here, I think Machinarium is just right in its length. A succinct story that doesn't drag its feet or skimp on content. At this point, I would call Machinarium a classic point and click. Its minimalistic style combined with its expressive characters makes it a joy to explore. Its variety in puzzles is welcoming, while also being decently challenging. If you consider yourself a seasoned adventurer, then you should really pick this up. It might be good for casual gamers as well. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33370076/]Steam Curator[/url]